It is not easy to write a biography that does Rivers justice. As Slobodin points out, the ‘varied…shape of his career… that he had no chance to draw together the diverse strands’ and the fact that he was an intensely private man have left us with a somewhat unusual record. In some periods of his life, so little is known that it is unclear what to say; at others, the doctor was involved in so many activities at once that it is difficult to know which to prioritise, let alone fit them all in. Slobodin describes Rivers as an enigma, a pivotal figure in the development of not only Psychology and Psychiatry but also Physiology, Anthropology, and Ethnography as sciences. Much of what we know of him relates only to his work, and the few insights into his non-college personae can be glimpsed in the papers of others, such as Arthur Hocart, who worked with him, or in the memoirs of his sister Katharine.
CHILDHOOD AND FAMILY
On a cold, rainy night in March 1864, near Chatham Hill in Kent, England, a first child was born to Elizabeth and the Rev Henry Rivers. The boy was duly christened in a ceremony conducted by his own father and named William, as per the family tradition of naming each eldest son. His middle names, Halse and Rivers, have caused biographers some puzzlement over the years, particularly because they could not find any evidence for the use of Halse on either side of the family, though with a little research, the explanations are not difficult to find.
The surname repeated as a Christian name is another habit of the Rivers family. Two previous incumbents fought on HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar: a father and son. The father was a famous gunnery captain whose notes on naval artillery were well known; the son was a midshipman who, aged 17, sustained a serious leg wound in the battle, resulting in partial amputation. A bust in commemoration of his service was given to Greenwich College, London. Legend has it that he did not utter a sound during the operation, and Henry frequently cited this fact when trying to instil his own strict notions of manliness in his sons. It is also from their naval service that we might discover an explanation for ‘Halse’; William’s brother, born in 1865, was christened ‘Charles Hay’, and the ‘Hay’ is said to derive from either an officer who served with the Trafalgar Rivers or a place close to where they set sail from in Portsmouth. ‘Halse’ therefore may have a similar history.
Bust of Lt William Rivers. 1788-1856, who lost part of his leg at Trafalgar
The family, expanding over the next decade by the arrival of Ethel Marion (1867) and Katharine Elizabeth (1871), lived in the Medway area of Kent. The siblings seem to have enjoyed a relatively idealistic childhood. In Katharine’s memoirs, she recorded boating, exploring local woods and fields, and relaxing in the evening whilst the adults played croquet on the lawn. They had many guests because Henry worked part-time as a speech therapist in addition to being an Anglican priest, and his patients often lodged with them. One of his daughter’s favourites was Rev Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. He suffered from a stammer and, although his impression of Katharine was favourable, his reaction to her brothers was seriously lacking; a pity since William, who had also stammered badly since infancy, had been something of an embarrassment to his father and could well have done with a role model. Instead, Dodgson rejected him because, apparently, he ‘hated boys’.
The stammer was not the only problem William faced from an early age. Whatever incident brought it on also robbed him of his visual memory, leaving him with aphantasia. He could picture well the lower floors of the house he had been brought up in until around five years old, but not the upper floor or anything else after that age unless he had a fever. He believed that something he had seen or experienced on that upper floor had so scared him that he not only blotted it out but also his mind’s ability to create images. Rivers never mentioned determining what the actual event was but speculated that it could have been something trivial to an adult yet extremely disturbing to a young child who felt forbidden by his father’s strictures to show distress. Growing up shy and perhaps underconfident, particularly in emotional expression, he understood from boyhood what it was like to try to suppress both voluntary and involuntary reactions.
These problems did not stunt his academic progress, however. From the age of thirteen, he and Charles attended Tonbridge Wells School as day boys. Both are mentioned in school magazines of the era for their achievements; William, studying a year ahead of his age, gained prizes for all-round attainment and Classics, and his report mentioned a ‘curious enquiring mind’, whilst Charles was also rewarded for good work. The girls were educated at home and, although there is no detailed record of what they were taught, Katharine, in her writing, appears articulate and well-read. Unlike many girls of their day, their education had not been sacrificed for the sake of their brothers.
Charles, William, unknown seated woman, Katharine Rivers in Jena
In the final year of his time at Tonbridge, Rivers decided he wanted to go to Cambridge University, like his father and grandfathers, and perhaps study the Classics or some branch of science. Sadly, before he could take the scholarship exam, which would fund his place, William became ill, probably with typhoid, and was obliged to relinquish the opportunity.
Recovery took a long time, almost a year of convalescing at home and with family in Brighton, and the illness left him with a condition something akin to what we now call M.E. It did not, however, destroy all his hopes for further study.